Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Americans - Democrat and Republican, young and old - still love Israel

A new Gallup poll shows that, despite what we've sometimes been reading, Americans of all political stripes and ages still overwhelmingly support Israel over the Palestinians.

They don't say the percentages of Democrats that view Palestinians more favorably, but when the question was rephrased a little differently:

83% of Republicans, 72% of independents and 64% of Democrats view Israel favorably.

27% of Democrats, 21% of independents and 12% of Republicans view the Palestinian government favorably.

Notice also that the Democrat sympathy for Israel, although a but rocky, is still higher than it was in the early 2000s.

Also:

Beyond party and consistent with Gallup previous findings by age, Israel also receives higher favorable ratings from adults 55 and older (80% favorable) than from those 35 to 54 (72%) or 18 to 34 (65%). Conversely, the Palestinian Authority receives somewhat better ratings from adults 18 to 34 (31% favorable) than from those 35 to 54 (15%) or 55 and older (18%).

Looking at the trends, this is higher across the board for all three age groups. Gallup's chart from their 2015 report on support for Israel by age shows this:

Each age group' sympathies with Israel has jumped at least 10% in the last three years.

All of the doom and gloom articles about how young people are so anti-Israel are simply not true. Right now, support for Israel among 18-31 year olds is at nearly an all-time high, since 1991 when there was a lot of sympathy for Israel during the Gulf War. Since 1997, sympathy for Israel as opposed to Palestinians for the younger crowd has soared from 32% to 65% - more than double!

The trend of people's sympathies to Israel has been pretty consistently going up since the BDS movement started in 2004.

I'm not saying that BDS isn't a threat - but looking at the numbers, their accomplishments aren't just zero - they are far less than zero.

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03/13 Links Pt1: How the Embassy Move Signals Big Changes to the Iran Deal; PA PM survives assassination attemptin Gaza; Trump fires Tillerson as Sec. of state, points to Iran deal disagreement

From Ian:

PMW: "Women can die in a more spectacular way than men die" - Fatah celebrates terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi

Marking the 40th anniversary of the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history in which 12 children and 25 Israeli adult civilians were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Fatah posted a video celebrating the attack and glorifying the murderers, in particular the leader of the attack, female terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. Palestinians have referred to the hijacked bus in which most of the Israelis were murdered, as "the first Palestinian Republic," because the bus remained under the terrorists' control for a few hours, as they drove from Haifa in the north to the center of the country, while shooting at civilian cars they passed on the way.

Texts in Fatah's video praising Mughrabi focus on the fact that the leader of the attack was a woman, and credit her with being "the president of the first republic":
"The name of the president of the first republic was Dalal Mughrabi.
Heroism has no gender.
Arab men must understand that they don't have a monopoly on the glory of life or the glory of death,
and women can love much more nobly than the way they love, and die in a much more spectacular way than they die"
[Official Fatah Facebook page, March 11, 2018]

Other texts in Fatah's video described the terror attack as "the bravest victory" and portrayed the hijacking of a bus full of Israeli civilians as the establishment of "the Palestinian republic" and of "the temporary capital of the State of Palestine":

Evelyn Grodon: How the Embassy Move Signals Big Changes to the Iran Deal

The Iran waivers have so far followed a similar pattern. The first time the deal came up for review, Trump issued the requisite certification that Iran was in compliance and that the deal served America’s national interests, but vowed he wouldn’t keep doing so forever. The second time, he formally decertified the deal, but once again signed the waiver that prevents sanctions on Iran from being reinstated. The third time, he signed the waiver once again, but explicitly threatened that this would be the last time.

If it weren’t for the embassy move, this threat would be treated in capitals around the world as so much bluster. Instead, world leaders are forced to take it seriously. True, there’s a chance that Trump is just bluffing. But there’s also a real chance that he’s serious, just as he proved to be on the embassy issue.

This means that European leaders, who initially refused even to discuss any changes to a deal they like just the way it is, are now feeling pressured to offer at least some sop to Trump if only to keep him from blowing the deal up entirely. Last month, for instance, French President Emanuel Macron threw his support behind a plan to impose surveillance and sanctions on Iran’s unfettered ballistic missile program, which is one of several key loopholes the administration wants closed.

The Iran deal didn’t motivate Trump to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The primary reason to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem was because it was the right thing to do. It’s something Congress decided should be done over 20 years ago, and it’s something presidential candidates from both parties have repeatedly promised but never fulfilled. Above all, it’s because the reality is that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, and it is ludicrous to keep pretending otherwise.

But it just goes to show that the right thing is also sometimes the smart thing. Granted, there’s no guarantee that Trump’s effort to fix the Iran deal will bear fruit; the Europeans are trying hard to fob him off with mere cosmetic tweaks. Yet there would be no chance at all if it weren’t for the credible threat created by the embassy move. And if anything meaningful does come of this effort–even if only a modest improvement, like cracking down on Iran’s ballistic missiles–it will be largely because Trump did the right thing on Jerusalem.

From the Embassy to an Undivided Jerusalem

Instead of waiting to build a new embassy, America did the smart thing, and is now simply going to hang a new sign on the facility that currently serves as its consulate in Jerusalem. But it turns out that the building is partially located in what was, from 1949 to 1967, an area designated as No Man’s Land between Israeli West Jerusalem and the part of the city that was illegally occupied by Jordan. Though the embassy sits on only a tiny portion of this territory and has actually been under continuous Israeli use since 1949, as far as the Palestinians and much of the world is concerned, it’s located on “occupied territory.”

But rather than being an unfortunate mistake, the location makes it clear how crazy it would be to try, as many advocates of the peace process insist must happen, to redivide the city. Instead of restructuring a partitioned city, the world should recognize that such a dangerous scheme would only hurt Jerusalem and do nothing to advance the cause of peace.

The reason for the creation of a No Man’s Land was that it was the result of the military stalemate in the city during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. While the Arab attempt to besiege Jewish Jerusalem failed, the Jordanian army’s invasion caused the fall of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and the eviction of its Jewish inhabitants and destruction of all of their synagogues. Ultimately, a stable front line that stretched like an ugly scar throughout the city was established.

For 19 years, the holiest of Jewish religious shrines — the Temple Mount and the Western Wall — were effectively rendered Judenrein; Jews only dreamed of ever being able to pray there again.

Thanks to a catastrophic error by Jordan’s King Hussein, the city was unified in 1967. Despite warnings from Israel to stay out of the conflict, Jordan started shelling Jewish Jerusalem in support of Egypt and Syria on the first of the dramatic six days in June that year. When Israeli forces broke through, not only were the Jews reunited with their holy places, but the walls that had rendered Jerusalem a stunted, divided city were also torn down.

In the 50 years since then, new Jewish neighborhoods were built in those parts of the city that were formerly occupied by Jordan. Arab neighborhoods suffered partly from the neglect of the municipality and partly because Palestinians refused to share in the life of the united city, preferring instead to nurture dreams of Israel’s destruction.

The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate is instructing its members to not speak to any American officials.

A meeting was planned for the US consulate in Jerusalem in the coming days and the PJS issued a statement that "the union stressed its rejection of such meetings, or any relationship with the US administration and its embassies and consulates, calling on all journalists not to respond to such calls, considering that participation in them is against the position of the union and the position of national consensus to their arrogance and their disregard for the positions and feelings of the Palestinian people."

The PJS claims on its webpage to support freedom of the press.

They support freedom of expression - as long as it is the kind of expression they agree with.

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PLO depicts US as crucifying Palestinians; attempts to hijack "Tikkun Olam," still supports terror

Mahmoud Abbas is planning to hold a meeting of the Palestinian National Council in late April to solidify his positions on the US and Israel and establish a more clear path to his succession.

The PNC, which is the top PLO legislative committee and supposedly represents Palestinians both inside and outside the territories, has not met since 2009.

The meeting will exclude Hamas and other organizations that are not likely to agree with Abbas.

While the PNC hasn't met since 2009, it has an active webpage, with virulently anti-Israel and anti-US articles.

For example, the US veto of the Security Council vote against recognizing Jerusalem was marked with this cartoon that equated that with crucifying the Palestinian people, effectively substituting the US for the traditional antisemitic view of Jews as murderers of Jesus.

An earlier article called on Britain to recognize Palestine as "repairing the world" for the crime of Balfour, as the PLO attempted to hijack the Hebrew phrase "tikkun olam."

The main webpage of the PNC has a link to the "PLO Basic Law" from 1964, still in effect today, that says "the armed Palestinian struggle shall be supported, and every possible effort shall be made to ensure that it continues and escalates, so that the impetus of the masses towards liberation may take its course until victory is achieved."

That "victory" is the destruction of Israel. And the highest legislative body of the PLO has never changed the PLO Basic Law.

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Of course the PLO won't go to conference to help Gaza. They are the ones who hurt Gazans!

From Times of Israel:

The Trump administration will convene a conference at the White House on Tuesday aimed at solving the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, with Jared Kushner and National Security Council staff outlining their plan for alleviating suffering in the coastal enclave.

“Solving the situation in Gaza is vital for humanitarian reasons, important for the security of Egypt and Israel and is a necessary step toward reaching a comprehensive peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, including Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank,” US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt said in a statement Monday.

While the gathering will be dedicated to deteriorating conditions in Gaza, no Palestinian representatives plan to show, a PLO Executive Committee member told Voice of Palestine radio last week.

“The United States knows very well that the cause of the tragedy of the Gaza Strip is the unjust Israeli siege, and what is needed is political treatment of this issue,” said Ahmad Majdalani.

That statement is especially comical.

We have already documented that the Palestinian Authority has been blocking medicines, fuel and electricity to Gaza - sometimes over the objections of Israel.

Now Al Monitor has a story that shows that Israel is allowing Egypt to deliver food to Gaza against the wishes of the Palestinian Authority!

The Egyptian authorities brought in vegetables, fruits and other goods into the Gaza Strip on Feb. 23 through the Saladin gate crossing, in the southern part of Rafah city, instead of using the standard Rafah border crossing as they normally do.

London-based Al-Hayat reported Feb. 23 that Egypt and Hamas had reached new understandings to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza by bringing in goods, vegetables and fuel with Israel’s approval and following coordination with Hamas, even if such understandings were to anger Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas refused to lift the sanctions imposed on Gaza and did not take measures to ease the situation.

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03/12 Links Pt2: How the Dutch Red Cross Abetted the Nazis during World War II; Why is Kal Penn so angry?; Prince William’s visit may not be too late

From Ian:

How the Dutch Red Cross Abetted the Nazis during World War II

Last month, the president of the Netherlands’ Red Cross visited Israel to apologize formally for the organization’s conduct during the German occupation of the country. He was moved to do so by a recent book on the subject written by Regina Grüter, which assembles much evidence to prove what Dutch Jews themselves have long believed, as Ofer Aderet writes. (Free registration may be required.)

At the beginning of 1941, when the order came to stop accepting blood donations from Jews, the Dutch Red Cross accepted the decree . . . and didn’t send a protest letter. In February of that year, when 427 Jews were arrested in Amsterdam and sent to Buchenwald, the Dutch Red Cross sent a letter to the German occupying authorities wondering whether the organization was allowed to send packages to these Jews. The answer was as one would expect: it was forbidden to help Jews. The Red Cross simply accepted the order and sent aid packages only to non-Jewish Dutch political prisoners.

When in late 1941 the Germans ordered that all Jewish volunteers be dropped from the Red Cross, the group [again] followed these orders without a word. And the archives contain not one mention of any attempt to oppose these orders, or any underground attempts by the group to help Jews.

The research also didn’t uncover any evidence of discussions among the group’s leaders about the fate of the Dutch Jews. Grüter’s book leaves the impression that the Red Cross people acted as mere bureaucrats who carried out the Nazi occupiers’ orders to the letter and never tried to make things hard for the Germans—in clear violation of their role as aid workers. . . . “They weren’t anti-Semites, they were simply neutral,” Grüter says.

Elliott Abrams: At Long Last, "The Crown" Will Visit Israel

Seventy years after Israel's founding, at long last a member of the British royal family will visit there. The summer visit of the Duke of Cambridge, HRH Prince William, has been announced.

This visit is remarkable for only one reason: that there has been no such visit before. Prince Charles attended the funerals of Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, and Prince Philip made an equally brief visit one time to see his mother's grave site. Neither was an "official visit," because such a horrible event was simply not acceptable to the Foreign Office. The change is important. As the great historian Andrew Roberts wrote,

Royal visits have always been a central plank of Britain’s diplomacy over the centuries, and this one is a statement that Israel is no longer going to be treated like the pariah nation it so long has been by the Foreign Office. It is no therefore coincidence that although Her Majesty the Queen has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129 different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member of the British royal family has ever yet been to Israel on an official visit.

Why now? There are various theories. One is that Prince Charles was the wrong royal to send (see this Spectator story for one of the theories as to why) and time had to pass until someone in the next generation could do it. Another theory is that the Foreign Office simply could no longer maintain the claim that a visit would sour relations with the Arab states when those states are improving their own relations with Israel. Finally it has been argued that the Foreign Office and royal refusal (and it is not clear whether the "no" was over the years really from the bureaucrats or the royals, or both) was based on Zionist violence against British colonial administrators in the pre-1948 years of the Palestinian mandate. That obstacle would seem very odd when the Queen in 2012 was willing to shake the hand of Martin McGuinness, who had been a very senior IRA commander leader in 1979 when the IRA killed Lord Mountbatten, to whom she was close and who was Prince Philip's uncle.

Andrew Roberts is right: this visit is praiseworthy because it treats Israel as a normal nation. In that sense it is very much in line with President Trump's move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, acknowledging that it has the right every other nation has to choose its capital city, and the American effort at the United Nations system to stop the unfair and unequal treatment of Israel. Seventy years is a long time to wait for normal treatment, and of course Israel is far from achieving it even now. But these steps are symbolic of real progress.

Prince William’s visit may not be too late

The British Foreign Office has its own reasons for sending Prince William to visit Israel. The prince himself is only an excuse. The visit is not intended to boost the young man himself or the Royal Family as a whole, nor to showcase Israel on its 70th anniversary. The real aim is to get Britain back in the engine room of Middle East and world politics. Not necessarily a bad idea in itself, but an exercise in cynicism and humbug. I hope it is not too late.

Britain seems to be feeling increasingly fragile on the world scene. If the British government had been smart it could have claimed a special status in the Middle East by virtue of its (sometimes tortuous) role in 19th and 20th century Zionism, and one might have thought its vaunted friendship with Israel could have been given expression before this. There may be reason to fear that Britain has abdicated to the US the role of special friend.

Many Israelis still need convincing that Britain really is a friend. Those with long memories cannot forget the Mandate period. When my late parents-in-law made aliya in 1965 and said they were from London they saw Israelis physically flinch. Possibly most Israelis today think this is just history and prefer to accentuate the more positive attitudes of Arthur James Balfour and Winston Churchill, but this still does not justify the lack of official visits by British royals. The British way of showing friendship is to send the royals on a visit. They have had sixty-odd years to do this during the queen’s incumbency but the Foreign Office kept dithering – or worse, sneering and using bad language about the Jews.

Over the years there could have been some official fence-mending, but now it will be harder. The queen might have been able to charm Israel but she is no longer so young and energetic after more than 65 years on the throne, making her the longest-serving British monarch. She will presumably keep going until the day she dies. Few people share her concern for dogs and horses, nor is she a warm everyone’s-grandmother type. But she is part of the marketing, like Big Ben and the Thames. She is part of the ethos that makes Britain interesting.

Just another antisemitic cartoon from Hamas

From the Hamas-leaning Palestine Times:

Not quite sure I understand it...maybe they are saying that Jews are forcing Abbas to give away Gaza, because, I guess, Israel really wants Gaza. Who knows.

But there is nothing "Israeli" about the bad guy in this picture, is there?

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Fatah again directly inciting terror

The Fatah Facebook page has again showed this image of the terrorists behind the Coastal Road Massacre for its 40th anniversary - the massacre with 38 Israeli victims including many children.

The caption was "Keep going."

Is that clear enough?

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03/12 Links Pt1: Israel isn't the epicenter of the violent storm that engulfs the Mideast; International Women’s Day or Women’s Terror Day?; Nearly finished US peace plan won’t call for two-state solution

From Ian:

Israel isn't the epicenter of the violent storm that engulfs the Mideast

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, made several critical observations in her address to the AIPAC Policy Conference last week, but one that rang particularly true was her assessment of Israel’s role in the Middle East.

“There are probably 10 major problems facing the Middle East,” Haley said, “and Israel doesn’t have anything to do with any of them.” And yet every month at the UN Security Council’s gathering devoted to the Middle East, the “session becomes an Israel- bashing session.”

Instead of singling out the only Jewish state for obsessive condemnation, Haley suggested the UNSC focus on the real pathologies of the Middle East, such as “Iran or Syria or Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS [Islamic State], the famine in Yemen.”

Of all the policy myths that have kept us from recognizing the true nature of conflict in the blood-soaked region, one stands out for its fatality and perpetuation: the idea that if only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were solved, all the other deep-rooted quandaries facing the Middle East would magically disappear.

The “Arab Spring” revolt that swept across the region should have destroyed the “linkage” dogma once and for all – what happened in Syria, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia had nothing to do with Israel – and yet the myth that the Arab world resolves around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lives on.

I invite you on a quick tour of the greater Middle East. The industrial-scale killing machine of the Assad regime in Syria, sustained by Iran and Russia? Unrelated to the ailing Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Yemen on the brink of starvation? Nothing to do with the Jewish state. The power struggle between Sunnis and Shi’ites that rips apart entire countries? No. The rise of Islamic State? All unrelated.

PMW: International Women’s Day or Women’s Terror Day?

“Sisters of Dalal” (Fatah’s women’s committee in Palestinian universities) gave out cards at An-Najah National University:
"In honor of March 8 [International Women's Day] And in honor of the soul of the Martyr of March Dalal Mughrabi Surround yourself with great things And ignore those who do not believe in you, As you are half of the universe and even more"
Text on Fatah Shabiba's logo on card: "From the sea of blood of the Martyrs we will create a state"

Shabiba, Fatah’s student movement, and its female students’ committee “Sisters of Dalal,” named after female terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi, saw International Women’s Day as an appropriate time to glorify Mughrabi, who led the most lethal attack in Israel's history: The Coastal Road massacre in which Palestinian terrorists murdered 12 children and 25 adult Israeli civilians.

At An-Najah University, the "Sisters of Dalal" gave out cards to female workers and students to celebrate Women's Day. Text on the card honored murderer Mughrabi and encouraged women to believe in themselves:
"In honor of March 8 [International Women's Day] And in honor of the soul of the Martyr of March Dalal Mughrabi Surround yourself with great things And ignore those who do not believe in you, As you are half of the universe and even more"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Shabiba Student Movement at An-Najah National University, March 7, 2018]

The card bore the symbol of Fatah's Shabiba branch at An-Najah University, which Palestinian Media Watch has reported includes text encouraging youth to seek Martyrdom-death:

UN Palestinian Refugee Aid Agency Called Out for Hypocrisy of Women’s Rights Tweet

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was called out on Twitter on Sunday for hypocrisy on the issue of women’s rights.

UNRWA initially tweeted, “In 2017, over 80,000 Palestine refugee community members were engaged in awareness-raising on gender equality and Gender Based Violence through various UNRWA-run activities.”

In 2017, over 80,000 Palestine refugee community members were engaged in awareness-raising on gender equality and Gender Based Violence through various UNRWA-run activities. #IWD2018 #TimeIsNow #DignityIsPriceless #ForPalestineRefugees #FundUNRWA https://t.co/3L9UfR4Jnz pic.twitter.com/Ooy8BNwh8r
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 11, 2018

In response, the Geneva-based monitoring NGO UN Watch tweeted:

.@UNRWA If you care about "gender equality" why is your staff filled with members of the misogynistic Hamas? Also: If you support peace, why does your map in this photo erase Israel? https://t.co/jD0lwHK7AK
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 11, 2018

Here is part 1 of the symposium I hosted yesterday in a beautiful rooftop venue in the Old City of Jerusalem, on the subject of "Donald Trump: Good for the Jews?"

It is a sequel to the similar symposium I led last year, also in Jerusalem.

Speakers this time were Dr. Richard Landes, Lori Lowenthal Marcus and Brian of London.

This is my intro, summarizing Trump's first year in office.

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From an interview with Volker Türk, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, on a new refugee compact now in draft:

Why a new international agreement? Does this mean the Refugee Convention is not fit for purpose?

The Refugee Convention focuses on rights of refugees and obligations of states, but it does not deal with international cooperation writ large. And that’s what the global compact seeks to address.

What tangible difference will the compact make in the lives of refugees or the communities that host them?

We would see better education for refugee boys and girls, as well as better access to health services for all refugees, and more livelihood opportunities. We would also see a different way host communities engage with refugees, hopefully moving away from the encampment policies that we still have in too many countries.

The compact would make sure that countries like Lebanon are supported. Not just from a humanitarian perspective but from a development cooperation perspective. And that’s what is new.

Also, we would hopefully get more resettlement places and more ways refugees can move to third countries – such as through family reunification, student scholarships, or humanitarian visas so refugees can travel safely (what we call ‘complementary pathways’).

UNHCR is trying to resettle refugees in other countries, especially the countries that are hosting them. UNRWA is against that.

UNHCR is trying to move refugees away from camps and into normal housing. UNRWA is against that.

UNHCR is trying to reduce the number of refugees worldwide. UNRWA is against taking away refugee status from a single Arab who descended from someone who lived in British Mandate Palestine in 1947 - even if they become citizens of other countries.

The irony of UNHCR talking about how much Lebanon needs help supporting a million Syrian refugees is that at the same time, according to the UN, any of them who are descended from Palestinian Arabs must have a completely separate organization with different rules, different definitions and no hope of resettlement.

It has never been so clear that UNRWA must be dismantled.

Interestingly, the draft compact does not, as far as I can tell, include the exception written in the Refugee Convention to not apply to Palestinian Arabs covered by UNRWA. That exception is probably implied, though, since this compact is meant to complement the Refugee Convention whose rules UNRWA spits upon every day of its existence.

(h/t Irene)

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Iran claims US is planning to destroy all Muslim countries

Today's fantasy from the Iranian regime:

A top aide to the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution says the US is secretly seeking to penetrate into Iraq and other regional states with the aim of destroying them from inside.

In an address to a religious ceremony in Tehran on Friday, Ali Akbar Velayati said the US’ excessive greed in the region has led to the massacre of innocent people in Yemen.

“The US is secretly seeking to penetrate into the region and destroy the Islamic countries particularly Syria, Yemen and Iraq from inside, but it will end up in total failure,” he was quoted as saying in a Farsi report by Fars News Agency.

One has to wonder if the average Iranian actually believes any of this.

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